Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Unveiled? Women’s Dress in Early Christian History
When the gospel was new and pure, Christian women covered themselves with long robes and veils, like many Muslim women today. This is evidenced by all early Christian writers that commented on the subject. There was a...
Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Born-again Aren’t the Same
(RNS) A week or two after the 2004 election, I was dining with some friends in New York when the conversation turned to religion and politics—the two things that you’re never supposed to discuss in polite company....
Intrepid Young Activists Push Condoms at World Youth Day
(RNS) Sending a small band of young people to talk about condoms at World Youth Day, the triennial Catholic jamboree that opens in Madrid on Tuesday (Aug. 16), sounds like penance, if not a kind of martyrdom. The...
King’s Nephew Named to Head Civil Rights Group
(RNS) Two and a half weeks after the sudden death of its president, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has named a nephew of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as its new leader. Isaac Newton Farris Jr., 48, was...
Three Questions Help Churches Navigate Anxious Times
Anyone feeling anxious? A better question: Anyone not feeling anxious? God's people in the 21st century suffer a serious malady. We mouth the words of faithfulness while we live lives dominated by anxiety and...
Why Churches Need More Comedy, Less Advertising
Two radio segments illustrated a certain truth. "This American Life" carried the story of Julian Koenig, who wrote memorable advertising slogans for companies like Timex and Volkswagen. The most startling bit from the...
What Keeps Society Thriving? Let’s Ask Plato
A long time ago, in a culture far, far away, a political philosopher sketched out the details of an ideal society. His name was Plato, and his portrait of this desirable and sustainable human community is his famous...
What makes the news?
By John Pierce Jerry Seinfeld observed: “It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.” Yep, and you never know what some crazy...
Got Questions About Islam? Hotline Has Answers
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Like many American Muslims, Asim Khan is tired of the prejudice against his religion. The president of the New Jersey chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America welcomes the curiosity. But he...
Black Baptists Decry Disrespect Directed at Obama
WASHINGTON (RNS) A black denomination that began 50 years ago in support of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has decried the “disrespect” shown to President Obama since he took office. Citing slurs and remarks such as...
Ohio Pastor Elected to Lead Breakaway Lutheran Church
(RNS) Members of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) have elected an Ohio pastor as their new head bishop, making him the first non-provisional leader of the year-old denomination. The Rev. John Bradosky was...
Lottie Moon: The Facts and Myths about Her Life
While many individuals are held in high esteem in our denomination, Southern Baptists have only one saint and her name is Lottie Moon. Of course, we don't refer to her as "Saint Lottie," but the legend that has arisen...
Iowa Straw Poll Reveals Role of Religion in Politics
As the Iowa Straw Poll came to life Saturday morning, a man wearing an NRA T-shirt and driving a golf cart for Michele Bachmann's campaign plowed into a group of people. Before day's end, Bachmann's campaign similarly...
“Gospel Without Borders”
The gritty images of border crossings, border patrol, police cars, barren deserts and government buildings place the audience firmly in another world – one with which immigrants are all too familiar. The documentary...
A `Christian’ Europe Without Christianity
(RNS) Does European Christendom need Christianity to survive? It may seen an odd question for a religious culture that once stretched from Britain to the Bosphorus, born of a deep and diffuse faith that inspired great...
Jedis and Pastafarians: Real Religion or Joke?
(RNS) When congregants of West Side Church and the Christian Life Center in Bend, Ore., awoke in June to news that their churches had been vandalized, they expected to be frustrated. What they didn’t expect was to be...
Judge Rules for Atheist Bus Ads
(RNS) A federal judge ruled Thursday (Aug. 11) that the public transit system in Little Rock, Ark., violated the free speech of local atheists by refusing to run their advertisements on city buses. U.S. District Court...
How You Can Be Greedy Without Being Rich
Any casual reader of the Gospels knows that Jesus said a great deal about wealth and possessions. In fact, he said more about money and care for the poor than any other subject. Jesus constantly provoked his hearers...
Socialism, Anarchism and Christianity in Britain
"Socialism is a lovely idea, but it is a little naïve about human nature." That's a line you'll hear repeated and reworded in classrooms, churches and cyberspace, whenever "the ideal society" and the inevitably flawed...
What Do Churches Have to Say on 9/11?
The 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, falls this year on Sunday. The confluence of a national observance and a day of worship affords churches an opportunity to frame the issue from a faith...
Advance planning
So, I've been working my way through the lectionary texts for 2012, outlining themes and choosing texts for the 2012 Nurturing Faith curriculum producted by Baptists Today. I've also been in happy conversation with...